Friday, June 12, 2015

Co-Pilot Lachlan Donaghue wakes up in hospital, a survivor of the crash of Flight HA1710, with memory loss and the suspicion that he could be at fault for the tragic accident. When everything becomes too much he goes home to hide, back to the small Scottish town he grew up in and to his family home.Rory Kendrick watches the news, sees every hour of the disaster unfold but never thinks that Lachlan was in the middle of it all. Or that his friend will be forced to come back home to hide and to heal. What Lachlan needs is a friend, not a lover, but sometimes the lines are just too blurred to make any sense.

Review by: multitaskingmommaMy Rating: 5 of 5 Stars

I have to say, Retrograde has got to be about the best read I ever read from author RJ Scott. She is usually an author who comes up with the most amazing stories but all of them, at least those that I had read, were sweet romances that made me smile goofy all the time. They were light hearted, they were fast reads, and even if the characters met some angst and frustrations along the way, they never made me feel uncomfortable enough to DNF or fast forward. With Retrograde, it was enough to make me pause and go to the author page once more, just to make sure I did not misread the author name.

This was way better than good.

This book is just the first of six planned in a series which will involve other writers like Amber Kell and Serena Yates. It revolves around Flight HA1710 which crashed under mysterious circumstances. Although only seven or so people died, the fact is, they died. The crash changed a lot of people's lives, those who were on the flight and those who had connections to those on that flight. In this first installment, we have front and center, Co-Pilot Lachlan Donaghue. His first memories are lights flashing, a searing pain that is bone deep and the voices that urge him to live. He finally wakes up to a living nightmare, unable to remember what had happened on that flight. His earliest memories are those of the week before and he was safe. What he thought of as a support group, his airlines, are not giving him the moral support he needed. Who he needs is someone he had relied on for as far as he could remember but that man is out of reach. Out of touch.

Rory Kendrick heard about the crash and when he realized it was his Lachlan involved, he sped to his bedside only to be blocked from seeing him. When he finally gained entry, it was with Lachlan needing his support and he gave it. He took him home and gave him the care he needed. He knew that although Lachlan was in a place that no one would want to be in, he still wanted him and needed him. He wanted Lachlan back and this time, he was going to make sure Lachlan stayed.

And so begins the story of how Rory gains back his best friend and lover, Lachlan. How the two men find themselves at a crossroads of their lives. With the crash of Flight HA1710 casting a dark shadow over them and all, they realize that love is the one thing they can rely on.

Needless to say, this is one fantastic read and I highly recommend it. Enough said.

Excerpt

Chapter 1 The day of the crash Lachlan Donaghue opened his eyes, cracked them just a little. Something had sideswiped him, glass in his hair, his hands gripping… to his left a person, eyes wide and open, facing Lachlan with not a spark of life left. And red… orange. And silence. Utter and complete silence. He closed his eyes. Rory. Help me. When he opened them again, this time there was no red, only the blur of a night sky, the black all encompassing. This time there was noise in the silence. A shout, crashes and bangs, and a sense of urgency in the people who stared at him now. “He’s alive.” “How the hell is he alive?” It hurt too much to keep his eyes open. Tell Rory I’m okay. Don’t let him worry. “Lachlan? Lachlan Donaghue? How old are you? Who is the Prime Minister? What is the Queen’s name? Lachlan? Can you hear me?” Who cares? I can't even speak, let alone think. Lachlan answered… or at least in his head he answered, but his throat was tight, there was pain in his head and neck, and he was staring at whiteness and blinking at bright lights. Where had the red gone? And the black? “Lachlan. Open your eyes. Look at me!” I don’t want to. “Pupils responsive. Someone get him to the Ulster.” “He’s triaged for Downe.” “He’s the fucking first officer. Get him to the Ulster Hospital and away from the scene now.” Rory, I’m sorry. I should have told you I was sorry. The TV was loud, discordant, and scary with red and orange against black, and they were shouting at him from the screen. People walked around him, all the time talking about the TV—or was that the TV itself? Nothing made sense. “The Captain is dead.” The words spun in his head, people talking around him; a chaos of noise. “Not… Andrew.” Lachlan murmured in despair. The staring eyes, the absolute stillness and quiet—Andrew was dead. Is everyone dead? Am I dead? What kind of hell was he in where they pushed him and held him, then took the pain away with needles? “Lachlan? Can you hear me? My name is Dr.…” The words faded, and he looked past the man who stared at him, looking instead at the screen, hearing the words all pilots dreaded to hear. Death. Destruction. Crash. His picture flashed on the screen labeled in yellow: Lachlan Donaghue, First Officer. Then there were safety records… and red … and orange. “And do you think, taking this into consideration, that the crash was deliberate? An act of terrorism? Or one of the pilots deliberately flying the plane into the ground?” A soft but insistent voice came from the TV. “There is nothing to indicate that at this moment. Neither of the black boxes have been located at this time—” “Do you know your pilots? Can the airline categorically say that the crash of Flight HA1710 was not pilot error?” “It’s too soon to comment—” “Can you say that?” Pause. “No. No we can’t.”

RJ Scott has been writing since age six, when she was made to stay in at lunchtime for aninfraction involving cookies. She was told to write a story and two sides of paper about a trapped princess later, a lover of writing was born. As an avid reader herself, she can be found reading anything from thrillers to sci-fi to horror. However, her first real true love will always be the world of romance where she takes cowboys, bodyguards, firemen and billionaires (to name a few) and writes dramatic and romantic stories of love and passion between these men.

With over sixty titles to her name and counting, she is the author of the award winning book, The Christmas Throwaway. She is also known for the Texas series charting the lives of Riley and Jack, and the Sanctuary series following the work of the Sanctuary Foundation and the people it protects.

Her goal is to write stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, that hint of a happily ever after.